Aviation regulations, according to which a dynamic passenger load may not be exceeded under defined conditions, exist for the event of a possible crash. For this it is necessary for the aircraft seat to provide a possibility for limiting the forces acting on the passenger, resulting from the accelerations occurring, in the event of a crash by absorbing kinetic energy.
Seat substructures for aircraft seats, which have a metallic frame as the force-transmitting element, are known from the prior art. The frame generally has a framework structure. An aluminium alloy is typically used as the material. The rigidity of the seat substructure is structurally configured in such a way that the forces occurring on the seated passenger are limited by the deformation of the seat substructure in the event of a crash.
The plastic deformation takes place distributed over the entire seat substructure. Upon translational accelerations or the resulting forces in the event of a corresponding crash, a rotational movement of the aircraft seat is adjusted about a virtual centre of rotation, which is located low in the direction of the floor plane relative to the seat surface of the aircraft seat. This leads, in the upper region of the seat, to an excessive translational displacement and therefore to a large movement envelope, which, as a movement space, has to be kept clear of further components in order to prevent collisions with possible injury consequences for the passenger.
Alternatively, the possibility exists of keeping the free space around the passenger so small that the path covered, for example, by the head in the event of a crash is so short that the head, by the time it has impinged on the rigidly installed part in the movement envelope, for example a chair or table, has not yet built up any critical energy leading to injuries. This either produces, for example, narrow seating or a very large free space. Both variants are disadvantageous because they lead to losses of comfort or to a high space requirement in the spatially limited cabin. Furthermore, padding of all the parts present in the movement envelope is impractical.